Nindō: Dominion

On a barren cliff in the Land of Lightning.

Two figures, both humanoid yet distinctly alien, adorned in pure white cloaks were floating in the air. One of the two was slender and the other much larger and bulky enough that its shoulder span exceeded multiple humans standing side by side. They were overlooking a bestial figure that was restrained by black rods on the side of the cliff. The slender alien was arrogantly sitting on the shoulder of the much bulkier one as if using him as his seat, expressing a stark difference between the social class of both figures. The red beast which the duo was overlooking had eight tails like that of an octopus, each of which was restrained by a black rod, embedded into the cliff. It was the Hachibi, Gyūki.

Shooting the two floating assailants a defiant look, the tailed beast opened its huge maw, instantly gathering its chakra in front to form a Tailed Beast Ball. The two assailants seemed uncaring about the huge mass of chakra that was condensing in front of the maw of the beast and merely looked on, waiting for the attack that could decimate a small country into a crater.

"To think that the chakra fruit which we seek is now in the form of a beast," The slender figure commented as he ate three red pills from his hand. "Furthermore, these beasts are scattered all across the land. This one is but one such fragment. It seems that we have some work cut out for us, Kinshiki."

As soon as the Tailed Beast Ball was complete, the beast let it loose at the cloaked duo who were floating in front of it arrogantly. The bulky Kinshiki didn't react as the slender alien extended his arm forward, facing the massive ball of chakra with his palm. His smile widened as the skin of his palm split apart to reveal an eye, one eerily similar to Sasuke's Rinnegan, only that it was red in color instead of purple. Releasing an invisible suction force, the entire Tailed Beast Bomb started to be absorbed into the eye in his palm before it could even come close to the duo.

As the massive attack completely disappeared, the restrained beast didn't even have the time to react as the slender alien formed a similar construct in front of his palm, this one even larger than the one it had released.

"Perhaps a twofold return …" He spoke with a deep and arrogant tone as if his words were a decree from the heavens. Then, he let the attack loose at the tailed beast.

A loud screech reverberated through the entire cliffside as the beast took the attack head-on, its entire body disintegrating under the assault as the entire mountain that it was on was destroyed, leaving a huge crater in the Land of Lightning.

The duo silently floated down from their position in the sky as the slender figure got off of the shoulder of Kinshiki who descended further and fished out a body from the rubble. Holding on to Killer B's head, Kinshiki held the man up for the slender figure to examine, "How peculiar," He commented, "it seems that this beast-form chakra fruit had possessed a human. Nevertheless …" The slender alien sighed and placed his palm on the abdomen of the dark-skinned man.

"That's all?" The alien frowned as merely three pills were formed from the chakra that he extracted from the man's unconscious figure.

Kinshiki dropped the dead man on the ground, "I sense an even greater chakra signal from a location not too far from here. Should we target that one next, Lord Momoshiki?"

"No," The alien now identified as Momoshiki spoke with a deep tone. "The supervisor contacted me directly yesterday. We are to go after the largest chakra signature only after gathering the rest of the beasts. I do not know why, but perhaps the seers sensed something that made them act in such a manner. Urashiki is still looking for that artifact, so we don't need to worry about him interfering."

"I understand," Kinshiki nodded.

"Still, we must move with haste, Kinshiki," Momoshiki ordered as he took his seat on the bulky alien's shoulder. "My original plan was to ignore the rest of the weaker beasts and use that chakra to condense a passable chakra fruit, hence saving us time. But now we must hurry if we are to leave in time. And I would rather not waste my time on this planet any longer than absolutely necessary."

"Understood, Lord Momoshiki," Kinshiki nodded as he took to the skies with Momoshiki, quickly disappearing.

After the duo was confirmed to have disappeared from the location, "Yo, partner. We seem to be fucked." Killer B's weak voice was heard as he came out of the rubble. "And the new Raikage is already on his way to Konoha …"

[We still have time, B. I need to rest for now. I expended much of my chakra to keep us safe and to make that decoy.]

…

The following morning in Konoha.

Sarada opened her eyes with a weird smile on her face, 'What a wild dream …' She thought to herself as she sat up and grabbed her glasses from the side of the bed. Putting them on, she pulled away her messed up hair from her face by combing it with her hands. She got out of bed, unable to get the dream's contents away from her head. Unlike her usual dreams, the memory of that dream didn't seem to be disappearing as she completely woke up, allowing her to recall all of the details from the dream.

'If it could truly happen, I would be the happiest ever. Just minus that whole part in Seventh-sama's office where I went to sleep … That was weird.'

As an hour or so passed, the young shinobi was ready to go on with her day. She descended the stairs, only to see her mother making breakfast, "Need any help, Mom?" She asked Sakura who seemed to be sautéing some veggies in a pan.

"Yeah, can you prepare the dough into small ball shapes and arrange them on that tray?" Sakura asked as Sarada nodded, moving to help her mother with breakfast.

A while passed and the mother-daughter pair finished preparing their meals, they packed some of the food in bento boxes for lunch and put another portion in the fridge for the night. They finally sat at the dining table, ready to eat breakfast.

"Oh, Mom," Sarada spoke with an amused smile on her face as took a bite, finishing it before continuing. "I had a really cool dream last night."

"Yeah? What did you see?" Sakura asked with a smile.

"I saw that Seventh-sama had offered to take me on as his disciple as long as I did well in the chunin exams," She said as Sakura's smile turned a little crooked. "He even had me stay late with him in his office," Not noticing her mother's expression, Sarada continued, "where he explained what kind of paperwork he does — even asking me for suggestions and help sometimes. And then brought me to his favorite ramen place where we got some for dinner. We then came home and ate dinner together, all three of us …"

The girl kept going, not realizing that her mother was barely suppressing her laughter. She only noticed Sakura's expression by the time she was about to finish, "What's so funny?" Sarada asked, angry. "I'm not telling you about —" Before she could angrily slam her spoon on the table, Sakura spoke with a laugh.

"That wasn't a dream, Sarada," She spoke, making Sarada freeze with her eyes wide open.

"You're kidding," Sarada said, unable to believe it. She did feel that her memory was far too clear for it to be a dream, but she just attributed it to her being very invested in the dream and making sure that she didn't forget it.

"No, I'm not joking," Sakura said with amusement. "Your Seventh-sama indeed brought you home last night with three bowls of ramen that you both shared between you. He even asked me for permission to take you on as his disciple so that he can train you to take his position in the future."

The young kunoichi was stunned for a while, "So it wasn't a dream? I'm really becoming his disciple?"

"That depends on your performance in the chunin exams. Only if you can showcase yourself well and get promoted from genin to chunin will you be allowed to become his disciple." Sakura showed her the reality.

"Don't worry, Mom. I'll show them all," Sarada said with determination. "I'm going to win the chunin competition," She recalled something else from the previous day, "As long as that Boruto doesn't get in my way and decide to back out of the competition. If that happens, I won't even be able to participate."

"It's your job to convince your teammates to give it their all," Sakura said with a smile. "It's all a part of the exam, now eat up, otherwise you'll be late for the morning meeting with your team. Konohamaru has probably already collected your missions for the day."

Sarada nodded, her eyes burning with conviction as she ate her food. However, that conviction was also hiding another emotion, extreme embarrassment at a certain memory.

'I can't believe I actually did that in front of Seventh-sama … I even went to sleep in his office. What if he mentions it to me? Ahh!'

The day was going to be slightly different from a normal day for Sarada.

***

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